Officials at the Darlington power planet east of Toronto, Ontario are scrambling to contain public relations after a minor accident at the Darlington nuclear power plant spilled 200,000 litres of water mixed with tritium, a radioactive isotope, into Lake Ontario.

The PR flacks are dismissing tritium as a “minor” pollutant. Here, however, is what the internet says about tritium ingestion:

“Tritium is relatively similar to hydrogen, which makes it bind to OH as tritiated water (HTO), and that it can make organic bonds (OBT) easily. The HTO and the OBT are easily ingested by drinking, through organic or water-containing foodstuffs. As tritium is not a strong beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally, but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food, water, or absorbed through the skin^.  HTO has a short biological half life in the human body of 7 to 14 days which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment.”- Wikipedia, Tritium

Since nearby metropolitan areas derive their drinking water from Lake Ontario, at least some of those 200,000 litres are going to end up back in the bodies of Durham residents over the holidays. Merry Christmas Pickering!

The Sierra Club recently criticized Canada’s nuclear safety laws. Canada allows 70 times the level of tritium in drinking water as the EU, and many more times what California allows.

Tags: contaminated drinking water, darlington power plant, nuclear drinking water, nuclear waste ontario, pickering nuclear power, tritium leak darlington

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